Almost Heaven

<p class=ql-align-justify><em>Almost Heaven</em> was originally titled Ballengee. I wrote during the early 80s while driving an eighteen-wheeler across the fruited plain of America and Canada. The characters of Almost Heaven are based on my memories of folks I knew while spending time with my summer parents on the farm in Ballengee West Virginia. My Summer parents were named Lester and Fonda Lively. Ballengee was a farming and dairy country filled with unique folks. I started going there in 1954 and continued each summer until 1965. I always thought fiction was born of truth and I filled Ballengee with fictitious characters from impressions of the folks I met there. The storyteller of the work never revealed his name but if he had it would have been Ragamuffin. It was a name given to me by Lester when asked who the little boy was hanging around him in the summer. Lester said Why he is my Ragamuffin. Ballengee is a real place and I turned it into a small town filled with interesting folks who made it Almost Heaven.</p>